Our people

Our People – their welfare, safety and development

Rexam employs more than 24,000 people in more than 20 countries around the world. We value the diversity that our people bring and we aim to harness this potential for innovation in our business, processes, products and performance.

Providing employees with a safe, fair and enjoyable place to work is core to our business and characterises our approach to people. We recognise the link between good environmental, health and safety (EHS) performance and improved business rewards. This is much in evidence in our work in Physical Risk Management (PRM). As a Group, we have shown continual improvement in EHS as well as loss prevention over the past five years. However, we recognise that, although our current performance is good in terms of our industry sector, we cannot accept any injury, detrimental impact on the environment or damage to assets during the performance of our business activities. In 2008, we committed to a new five year PRM strategy to maximise the use of existing good practice within Rexam (and within recognised industry leaders in this field) and to provide a step change in performance across our business in terms of EHS and loss prevention.

The implementation of the strategy began in 2008 using our Inter Company Working Group (ICWG) which comprises EHS managers from each of the business sectors. It was instrumental in ensuring that the approach agreed took into account the different challenges that the businesses face and that the strategy was communicated and implemented within the sectors in a timely manner. Each business sector now has a clearly defined PRM plan and strategy for the next five years aligned to the business strategy.

Rexam considers the protection and welfare of its employees and others impacted by our operations as a key business priority. Regrettably, in a fire at one of our Plastic Packaging sites in Shanghai, three Chinese firefighters tragically lost their lives. The incident was fully investigated by both ourselves and external resources, including the Chinese fire authorities and a specialist forensic consultant engaged by us. The investigations resulted in a number of immediate and longer term actions being completed across the Group. These include improvements in fire protection systems as well as structural changes to improve evacuation routes and reduce the likelihood of fire transmission from one building to another.

Our safety performance is measured against our Lost Time Accident Rate (LTAR) and the implementation of appropriate management systems. Performance improved on both measures in 2008. However, we consider that any injury is one too many. Analysis of the root causes of the incidents recorded during the year showed that 66% were based on inappropriate or unsafe behaviours. As such we have realigned our approach and invested a significant amount of resources in developing and initiating Behaviour Based Safety Programmes across our operations. The aim is to create a sustainable culture of safety consideration where positive behaviour is recognised, measured and demonstrated consistently and unambiguously by our people.

We have a rigorous approach to measuring lost time accidents by including restricted work days in the calculations. In 2008, the Beverage Can and Plastic Packaging sectors showed a 50% improvement in their LTAR performance. During the year, however, we experienced a number of incidents, the most serious of which were two separate partial finger amputations at our Beverage Can plant in Egypt and a loss of sight in one eye in one of our Beverage Can plants in Spain. The employees involved have returned to work. Each of these incidents was fully investigated and a number of improvements implemented. The learning points arising from these incidents and subsequent improvement actions were communicated to the wider business.

We measure the severity of injuries using the number of days away and/or restricted time (DART). This continues to show year on year reduction with the overall Group DART improving by 48% in 2008. This gives us some assurance that the nature of the injuries occurring is becoming less severe and reinforces our belief that the programmes we are using are helping to improve the protection of our employees.

Loss Prevention

The new PRM strategy places an emphasis on safeguarding Rexam assets through protection and prevention programmes. Our belief is that our focus should be on preventing an incident from occurring through good engineering practice, best practice management systems and appropriate behaviour. Where there is a residual risk, we work on providing adequate protection matched to the degree and nature of the remaining risk.

As part of the new strategy, we are working more closely with our lead insurers and our insurance brokers. We have been developing enhanced systems for monitoring the implementation of insurance recommendations and can report 70% of those made were actioned.

Further surveys are completed by independent consultants to assess the status of our loss prevention and protection systems. Improvements include updating permit to work systems, smoke detection systems and upgrading sprinkler systems.

The major loss prevention incidents during 2008 were four fires resulting in asset damage: two in warehousing at our Plastic Packaging sites in Shanghai, China; one in an electrical substation at our Beverage Can plant in Naro Fominsk, Russia, and one in an ice maker at the Beverage Can Forest Park site, US. Each of these incidents was subjected to further investigation and action plans to prevent recurrence.

Developing our people

We see the ability for everyone to work in a safe environment, free from discrimination and bullying as a fundamental right. In return, we expect our employees to demonstrate high levels of ethical behaviour and have a genuine respect for the rights of individuals. The Rexam Code of Conduct clearly sets out the expectations that we have of ourselves.

The Rexam Vision, to be the leading global consumer packaging company, continues to communicate a clear and consistent direction and sense of purpose. This is reinforced by our four core values: Continuous Improvement, Trust, Teamwork and Recognition, encapsulated in and represented by The Rexam Way. These values establish a common framework and a set of fundamental beliefs for everything that we do across our operations. We know that the foundation of delivering our vision and values is through the performance of our people.

It is our belief that our people can only perform if they are well led. In 2008, therefore, we focused heavily on developing clear and relevant Rexam-specific leadership practices. These were developed from real examples of Rexam leaders inspiring change and improvement in a manner aligned with The Rexam Way. The leadership practices are now a key element in how we develop people and manage performance across the Group.

We also know that people perform at their best when they are clear about their objectives, receive feedback on their progress, have the chance to develop themselves and are properly recognised and rewarded. To facilitate this, we successfully launched an integrated online Performance Development System in 2008 which combines the measurement of leadership practices and business objectives, as well as considering input on personal development and individual potential.

We also substantially refreshed our approach to reward, bringing together a competitive market-related approach with incentives that recognise sustained business and individual performance. (See Remuneration Report for further details.)

By increasing our focus on Talent Management, we strengthened our succession planning and put in place robust talent development processes across all areas of the business. As a result, alongside selective external hiring, we saw a significant improvement in our talent pipelines and succession strength. The launch of the Rexam Academy in 2008 marked an important investment in our future talent. The aim of the Academy is to provide a clear development plan, ideas for career options in Rexam and a mentor for those who are at an early stage in their Rexam career.

We understand the importance of engaging our employees, and make use of a range of communications tools in order to reach different employee groups within the business. Regular Group news bulletins give people a broad view of Rexam’s activities, while a Groupwide team briefing process cascades news and information to local plant teams. The CEO has a web log on the intranet where employees can ask questions directly to him. Additionally, he also posts regular video broadcasts on the intranet at important times of the year such as half year and full year results, or when there is a need to reach a wider audience quickly. The businesses also publish their own newsletters and magazines to keep their employees informed of relevant business news.

Recognising the contributions that our people make, both formally and informally, continues to be a feature of Rexam’s employee engagement processes. The Company’s award structure, the Cornerstone Recognition Program, is a robust mechanism designed to recognise both team and individual achievements in our four areas of strategic focus: operational excellence, profitable growth, satisfied customers and Rexam people. These awards not only recognise outstanding accomplishments but act as the catalyst for developing best practice across the organisation and in further embedding The Rexam Way values.

We have taken major steps during 2008 to motivate, engage, recognise and develop our people but we still have much to do. In 2009, we shall seek to build on these efforts further through developing the capability of our people to drive excellence in business leadership, business ethics and business performance.